Turning the tables on ethnic questions
June 3, 2013
Turning the tables on ethnic questions
Korean American woman gives racially insensitive person a taste of his own medicine.
10 Comments
leave one →
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
CJS-360 Diversity Issues 
Sept 10, 2013
This particular story between a Korean American and a Caucasian American is one of the examples of being insensitive about one’s cultural and social difference. What happened in this story is a stereotypical perception that transpired on the part of the Caucasian that is prevalent in our culture.
In my text book “Investigating Difference” there is a section designated in ( chapter 4, page 46) called “Stereotyping “ it explains that in order for people to psychologically process information or deal with a set of social interaction; they seem to place others in abstract categories based on visible characteristics . In our country, these characteristics include skin color, sex, presence, language difference, disability and a host of other characteristics.
To a certain extent, I have no problem with the white man who probably innocently asking question to find out where she was from. We do tend to ask question when there a difference is being recognized in one’s tone of voice, clothes, style of communication.
I have been asked before where I was born or where I am originally.
I don’t get angry or upset but I do , however, get defensive when there is a racial comment being made.
The concept of stereotyping becomes annoying when it couples with making pre-conceived notions about someone’s educational, social skills .
I agree with the way you defend the way people stereotype. Often it is given a bad reputation even though we all do it. I think the video shows how far some people can take it though. The reactions of the two people are funny in that they are the extremes of both sides. The white guy is just trying to get to know the girl, but obviously does not word his questions in a way that would be acceptable. She, however (due to the humorous nature of the video) takes his questions as extremely offensive and needs to react. She chooses the passive aggressive method that makes him seem like an idiot, yet he still has no idea what is going on (therefore really defeating the purpose).
In today’s society, there are many people that still do not encounter ethnic diversity on a daily basis. I agree that innocent inquiries into one’s background are acceptable, but there is a fine line between attempting to understand different cultures and discrimination/hateful behavior.
Even though the video reenactment was hilarious, it does however slap us in the face with stereotyping tendencies. I have no doubt this man was trying to strike up a friendly conversation and was not meaning to come off as rude, but her response was epic and hopefully showed him how ignorant or “WEIRD” he actually sounded. May we all walk away with the knowledge of how stereotyping individuals devalues them.
This video, “What kind of Asian are you?”, is funny to the common YouTube watcher, but it definitely has another message than just comedy. The first stereotype of this skit is that if you are not white, you should speak another language or have an accent. This is shown when the man says, “Where are you from? Your English is perfect.” Without the last part about her language, it would have been just a normal small talk question. He finally gets to his real question when he says, “Like, well, where are your people from?” With this statement, he is showing that because she is of a certain skin color, she must be from the exact same place as everyone else that looks similar to her. That place, as he perceives it, could not be the United States of America, as she has answered twice previous to this question and he did not accept those answers. After she says her great grandmother was born in Korea, he proceeds with how much he likes several different stereotypes associated with Koreans.
At this time, she flips the tables on him so he can see how it feels. She asks where he is from. He says San Francisco. She asks again where he is from. He starts to get it and says “Oh, I’m just American.” She asks, “Really? You’re Native American?” He responds by saying, “No, just regular American. Oh.. well… I guess my grandparents are England.” The first part indicates that he believes “Americans” are white. She is more correct in saying Native Americans because they did inhabit the US far before it was the US. With the second part, he finally understands what she is getting at and says his grandparents are from England. She then proceeds on with a British accent and spits out as many stereotypes associated as she can think of.
He responds with, “You’re weird.” This shows that he did not really see that he did the exact same thing to her.
While some could say that it was just an innocent question by the white male, I see it more of being uneducated and insensitive to those different than you. If you were an educated person, you would know that America is a very diverse place made up of different genders, races, ethnicities, ages, sexual orientation, religion, and the list could go on and on. It also displays the message that some think assimilation never occurs. At what point will people of different color just be accepted as Americans without first determining when their family started living here?
It’s important to remember that individuals should be defined by who THEY are, not by what they look like, talk like, walk like, or what they like. Some people are very quick to make assumptions or judgments toward people based on their differences and more often than not, those stereotypes generally don’t fit. It becomes an issue when you treat people differently or badly based on these stereotypes.
I thought this video was done very well.. It definitely showed this issue to people, but with a touch of humor so it doesn’t feel like a lesson.
This is a parody of common stereotyping that still takes place in our country. Even with her telling him she was from San Diego the man kept pressing the issue, speaking slowly and keeping on the topic until she mentioned her great grandmother was from Seoul. To a certain extent, I agree with the commenter above me, but only if the questions are asked correctly. The way he slowed down, and then mentioned teriyaki kimchi could be seen as stereotyping/offensive. I think that the key thing to take away from this, is if you were born in this country you are American. If you obtain citizenship coming from another country you are american as well. To an extent cultural identity is in the eye of the beholder and you can choose to identify with where ever you have roots or ancestral ties. That is my personal viewpoint anyway. Someone from Asia for example upon obtaining American citizenship should be allowed to identify as Asian-American, or simply “American.” People need to be more sensitive and cognizant to this. Take the stereotyping out of it and actually get to know the individual. I have the same textbook it goes on to say that “Stereotypes can prevent individuals from interacting with each other and even cause them to be afraid,” (Unknown Author: 2009, p. 46). This obviously wasn’t the case here, but the interaction wasn’t appropriate. We must not see people as this group or that group, but overcome stereotypes.
This video show just how individuals stereotype others and don’t even realize what they are doing.
In my textbook – Investigating Difference, chapter 4 – Critical Issues in Communication the subtitles relates to the video. In addition to the stereotype, critical skills are very important in communicating with others that are different than you. The skills that are lacked in the video are being mindful, practicing empathy, and listening.
The first thing the male did wrong was not being mindful. His question was not wrong but the moment he said “your English is perfect” showed how insensitive he was being. My belief is he never considered her feelings. Secondly, he did not practice empathy, for when the Korean American woman said she was from San Diego. He seemed to think she did not understand him and began speaking lower and louder. When the woman finally answered his last question of “where are your people from”; she says Korea, for him to tell her about the Korean foods he liked and that one was on the corner of his house show how insensitive he was being. Lastly, He was not listening to what she was saying; because if he was, he would have heard her say she was born in Orange County.
I think if he would have started the conversation off by asking her nationality the conversation would have been different.
BeBe1958, I agree. The male was not mindful. He made an assumption based on his own beliefs and perception of Korean people.
The video was comical. It was a great way to show you cannot always judge a book by its cover but in this case people. I see a lot of this happening in classes when students have to work in groups. When the teacher tells us all to get to know one another, ethical questions do arise. The way they are asked can sometimes come off as stereotypical. When done unintentionally, I think it’s just a matter of curiosity.
If the guy would have started the conversation with a different attitude and not been so rude or ignorant I think the conversation would have been fine and she may not have been offended. I know many people that are from Africa and they are Caucasian, yet others from Africa don’t sit and drill them about where their people are from. What this man did was very much stereotyping. I think he should have just been mindful of how he was treating her and talking down to her. When she said she was from San Diego he should have left it at that and not insulted her. He could have just asked her what her nationality was and could have left out his ignorance about “where her people are from”. I did like how she throw it back in his face when he called HER weird.
This is an example of you can’t always judge a book by it’s cover. This video shows how what may be innocent questioning can lead to stereotyping of other individuals. I think we should all think before we speak. We often tend to assume rather than know. We make generalizations of people from our own perceptions. It would be better to ask questions of things you do not know than to be ignorant and guess.